MAP14: Pistol Only (Eternal Doom)

MAP14: Pistol Only is the fourteenth level of Eternal Doom, and the first level of Eternal Doom II upgrade. It was designed by Dietmar Westerteicher and uses the music track "Fugue in A Minor".

Even when played as part of a full episode run, this map will normally be played from a pistol start, as the previous map ends with a death exit. Progress may be blocked near the end in ZDoom-based ports; see Bugs below.

Essentials
To complete this level, it is almost mandatory to play it Tyson-style: Although it contains a single shotgun and several sergeants, this helps a little because of minimal amount of shells available to the player. Also, combined with presence of cyberdemon and spiderdemon bosses, this makes 100% kills very difficult to obtain.

This map is the same on all skill levels.

Starting out
You start in a large room, with a cyberdemon constrained inside a raised circular structure. Ignore him for now, and turn to your right. Go through the door in the east wall, then continue down the hall. As you approach the wall at the apparent end of the hall, it will lower, revealed two imps. Kill them, then use the wall opposite the light to reveal a teleporter.

You can use this teleporter to telefrag the enemies at the true end of the hall. You have to move quickly, or risk a serious hit with no armor. Step into the teleporter and continue moving forward. As soon as you teleport a second time, step backwards to teleport a third time, then switch to forward again. After the forth teleport, all the monsters will be dead except for the imp at the end, which you'll have to kill the old-fashioned way. Then take the imp's teleporter.

Eastern area
You will arrive in a room facing a raised platform, barrels and imps along the sides. Shoot the barrels to kill the baddies, then step forward and take the berserk pack. Continue to the far end; this will trigger the side walls to lower. Shoot the barrels in each side space to kill your new friends, then finish off any leftovers. You can use the sides of the raised platform to lower it to cross to either side.

The northwest torch is red (the others are blue); use it to open a hidden door on the east side. In that room, go straight across and to the left/north, use the skull switch there, then turn around and find a switch has been revealed at the southwest corner. Go straight there and use that, ignoring the other enemies until you've hit the second switch. Stay in the corner until you hear the arch-vile die. Then you can head back out the way you came in -- the blank wall will open like a door. Continue across the raised platform and through the now-open door to the west.

Go to the end of the hall, use the bullseye switch, kill the two pink demons that attack from behind, then open the door behind them. In that area, you'll wake a bunch more pinkies, but they're separated behind a low wall. Continue around and open the door on the south wall. Kill the pain elemental in there, then press the skull switch, which also starts a crusher in with the pinkies. Continue to the end of the walkway, and use the red block to climb over the wall. There are some clips in with the pinkies, which you'll probably need. Climb up onto the central platform here to find another teleporter.

Southern area
You'll teleport back to that first hallway, where a wall has opened and some zombiemen will immediately attack. Get them, then continue in and up the stairs to a dead end. Go back down and you'll find the two cross-passages have opened up. The western one has a mancubus and a supercharge; the eastern a baron and a blue armor. Your may want to stand in the middle and bait them into infighting. The western end has a linedef that blocks monsters, so don't expect the mancubus to come out. You need to cross that same line to open a door at the top of those stairs. Press the switch there, then go back down again, this time to the right/east cross-passage, where a door will have opened. You can walk through the bars.

Open the door at the end of that new passage, and you'll be looking down into a room with an invulnerability sphere. Jump down onto that, then use your berserk-fists to pummel the revenant, then up the stairs to the Hell knight, and then around to the imp. Use the button behind the imp to open a door to the north, and take the teleporter there.

Northeastern area
You'll end up back in the first hall, yet again. A new opening will have appeared to the north, immediately behind you as you come out of the teleport. There is a chaingunner in there, but you can't get in there (yet). Instead proceed east to a second northern opening, up some stairs to a bunch of barrels and a cacodemon. Blow the barrels when the caco' is nearby and you'll take him out.

At the end of the stairs, you'll be overlooking a wooded area, with a square silver column, and some imps and zombies. Take care of the baddies, take the radsuit at the north, and then jump down into the nukage to the south. At the east end, use the brown brick wall to lower it, and then cross into the wood-panel hallway.

Press the skull switch to lower the wall, along with two imps and a zombie. Continue through the next door and along the passage, past the box of bullets. Here you'll encounter a revenant -- your best bet is likely to rush him with a fist attack. Past him are two pink demons and a skull switch. Use the switch to lower the pedestals with the bullets and health, and then head back the way you came.

The wall you lowered (to/from the nukage) can be ridden like a lift, back up to the wooded area. You'll find the silver column has lowered as well, allowing you to take the teleporter on top. That will put you in a new passage, lined up with the chaingunner from earlier. Run forward to "jump" over the passage below, and you'll trigger a crusher to take out the chaingunner. Continue the rest of the way to pick up some rockets and the yellow key.

Northwestern area
Step through the "window" back into the first hall again, and then go west back to the big arena you started in. To your right/north, a switch will have risen out of the floor. Press it to raise some stairs to the yellow door. Go up and through. At the end of the passage, use the switch to lower a lift and an imp. Ride the lift up, stepping off to the west as soon as you can (if you miss it, press the east wall to lower again).

You'll be on a walkway, with a ledge looking over an area below. The switch at the end of the walkway will lower the ledge, allowing you to jump down. Note that using the wall from below will lower the ledge again, allowing you to ride it back up. You'll be in a somewhat maze-like area, with an assortment of zombiemen, imps, and pink demons, along with a smattering of ammo and health, plus a green armor.

From here, go down the central north/south walkway until you reach rows of square columns. Turn right/west, go to the end of the columns, and then turn right/north and continue to that end. Trip the skull switch here, and then backtrack. The square columns on the other side will have lowered to become stepping-stairs (and releasing a few more imps and zombies). Repeat this process with the skull switch on the east side, to lower the west-side square columns.

Run up the columns on each side to reach the central platform with the green marble switches. Press the switch on each side. Each lowers some silver bars to the south. Once both sets of bars are lowered, go north -- almost to the ledge you lowered earlier -- then turn left/west. Go all the way along to end, turn left/south, and continue to the end again.

You'll be in the area with the silver bars you just lowered. Climb up to the silver door-looking thing. There will be a rectangular blue hole. Shoot/punch it, and the wood door to the west will open. (If you can't seem to hit the blue hole, see Bugs, below.)

Follow the stairs up and around. Pick up the red key and a box of bullets. You can optionally use the skull switch here to raise an invisible barrier in the arena below (see the next section); whether or not you want this may depend on how you want to tackle the final fights. When ready, jump down into the arena.

Cyberdemon and exit
A new switch will have risen. Press it to lower the cylindrical structure with the cyberdemon. He'll start shooting rockets at you presently, so watch out.

To exit, you need to open the blue door at the south west corner of the room. The blue key is located south east edge of the cyberdemon-cylinder. On either side of the key is a shotgun and a box of shells. At the western point of the cylinder is an invulnerability sphere.

The invisible barrier you can raise (see the end of Northwestern area above) will form a U-shape, with the open end of the "U" facing west. The north, south, and east walls form the U. There are gaps things can slip past, between the visible west wall of the room, and the tips of the "U". These points are marked with small green pillars. The walls of the invisible barrier block players, monsters, and projectiles, but not hitscan shots or splash damage from rockets. The cylinder with the cyberdemon is located in the center of the "U".

Given the lack of weapons -- you'll have a shotgun at best -- many players will opt to skip trying to kill the cyberdemon. A mad dash to the invulnerability sphere while the cylinder is still lowering, then pick up the blue key, open the door, kill the shotgun guys waiting there, and run in to trigger the exit line. Players going for full kills will doubtless want to maximize use of the invulnerability.

Other points of interest
In the arena with the cyberdemon is a switch guarded by red bars. The switch will lower large sections of the western wall, revealing a spiderdemon, several barons, plus multiple each of revenants, mancubi, and arachnotrons. Also in the newly-exposed area are a supercharge, a blue armor, and two stimpacks. No part of this is required to exit, although infighting vs the cyberdemon may be a useful strategy.

Secrets

 * 1) In the easternmost room, after you hear the arch-vile die, you can enter the oval-shaped area to the north, which lowers the oval column.  That will reveal a green armor and the remains of the arch-vile. (sector 171)
 * 2) In the area with the cross-passages with the mancubus and baron, when you walk into the eastern end, a door opens.  Go back to the first hall and head east again, past the false wall that lowers.  The north wall will have opened, exposing three imps and a medikit. (sector 46)
 * 3) In the northwest hallway at the bend where the stairs are, press on the inner wall between the steps at the U-bend. This will open up a compartment with a cacodemon and a berserk pack. (sector 15)

Bugs
In the northwestern area, the normal progression of the level expects you to shoot a blue wall with a hole in it, to open the door to continue. It may be very difficult or impossible to make this shot trigger in at least some ZDoom-based ports. If you are using such a port and the door will not open, there is an alternate path.

Backtrack the way you came in, lowering the wall on the window, back down the next lift, and go back out the yellow door. In the big arena, the new switch will have come up, and you can pick up the walk-through from Cyberdemon and exit above.

Routes and tricks
As with all Doom switches, the switch to lower the cyberdemon and the blue key can still be triggered without raising them out of the floor. Since the final arena is also the starting room, this allows most of the map to be bypassed for a speedrun.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on August 1, 2022.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level:

Inspiration and development
This was originally the starting level of an unfinished project called "Weapons.wad", where in each level you would have to survive using mostly one weapon. The idea can still be seen in this version.